Antiquity unleashed : Aby Warburg, Durer and Mantegna

Fascinating exhibition at the Courtauld Gallery recreating a display from 1905 which accompanied a lecture by the art historian Aby Warburg where he described his idea of Pathosformel or the pathos formula in Renaissance art. This theory held that artists in the Renaissance not only drew on life but also used the classical vocabulary of gestures.

There were some lovely works and the commentary each one pointed out the part it played in the argument. There was of course a “Battle of the Nudes” which I think of as the Mornington Crescent of Renaissance art. There were also four lovely Mantegna prints and I particularly liked his Bacchanal with Wine Press which included a figure based on the Belevdere Apollo which had been excavated at this time. It also had some drunken cherubs which I always find amusing!

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